Here's why responsible innovation matters in times of crisis

Over the course of the last decade, we have gone from believing in tech as a solution to an ardent tech-lash – at least in the global North. Gone are the confident assertions that technology will save the world. People have recognized that the design and development of the technology itself has implications for the world we want – whether that’s one with clean energy, reduced inequality or decent work for all.

This societal perspective shift led to the birth of the idea of ‘responsible innovation’. This is the belief that the outcomes of innovation processes should be socially desirable and ethically acceptable. Often championed by company leaders and facilitated by profits, responsible innovation was a buzzy concept in technology in the 2010s – teams were built, processes were developed and organizational cultures shifted.

The underlying principles of responsible innovation remain subject to ongoing debate, however. One core issue is that businesses are increasingly being called on to self‑regulate the technology they are developing and deploying. Even when they have the best intentions, there’s often a gap in their desire to act ethically and their actions.

Now, as we face a looming global recession and resulting tech layoffs, this shaky foundation is laid bare. Units associated with responsible innovation – like Data for Good and Trust & Safety – have recently been cut back by companies who have built their brand around benefiting society.

These decisions were positioned as efforts to better allocate focus and budget for other projects and products. For executives with pressure to generate maximal financial returns, these roles are perceived as extraneous; the concept is opaque, the system self-governed, and the value is not demonstrated on the balance sheet.

Over the next decade, 70% of new value created in the global economy will come from digital technology, and nearly 7.5 billion people (or 90% of the global population) will be online. With technology’s outsized role in our economies and societies, stakeholders must come together around a clear narrative of responsibility in the context of technology organizations. This means aligning innovation with the values, needs and expectations of society.

One valid starting point is to explore the connection between responsible design, development and deployment and value creation. Historically, responsible innovation was about making voluntary decisions on how technology innovation processes should contribute to societal goals. The value created was a result of enhanced brand reputation.

However, the rise of non-financial investing – currently estimated at over $20 trillion AUM – demonstrates that there is a connection between company practices and financial impact. Incorporating value-based practices into innovation decisions is not just about reducing the social cost of negative externalities, it’s about accounting for long-term value creation.

While standards are useful in measurement, they can pose a problem for processes. The narrative of responsible innovation should acknowledge the realities of different business models, organizational structures and cultural norms. Rather than trying to pursue a common definition or set of standards, it should focus on practices. Over the past five years, the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution has partnered with stakeholders from the public and private sectors to develop and test practices of responsible innovation.

Together, we have created evaluation schema, training curricula, organizational models and assessment tools to support the ongoing process of aligning technology design and development with the values, needs and expectations of society. And in moving toward a common approach, we have open-sourced them so companies can benefit from collaboration instead of building these tools by themselves.

However, there is one more piece to the puzzle: earning digital trust. We need to pay attention to the good governance of organizations. Accountability and oversight can help ensure common approaches to responsible innovation are incorporated and implemented into operations. Currently, technology companies are creating their own forms of governance, like Meta’s Oversight Board. However, these efforts are imperfect, and there is lots of room for other stakeholders to step in and collaborate.

Now, in these turbulent 2020s, the most important innovation will not be another leapfrog in technology but a breakthrough in our understanding of its function, its relevance and its role in mediating technology and society.